Projects Sold the truck, bought a car ('53 Desoto)

Ya lost me?

My good friend Rcranger is hooking me up with a Powerglide. Yeah buddy!

 

Just sayin, find a Chevy for that W, & a Hemi or Mopar BB for the DeSoto!

 

great car I like the colors and the fact that its safe for your family. I have 3 boys 1,2, and 9 year. I put the car seats and seat belts in mine so we can all enjoy a fun drive.

 

Dude, that score will leave you high for days.

 

Nice score on the 409. Those valve covers are pure porn.

Cool to meet you at the Winfield workshop. Thanks for the tips on the Olds headlights.

 

Like i said in the pm, great score!!!
Put it together and drop it in..have fun!
Just do yourself a favor, IF you decided to sell the Desoto, PULL THE 409 and drop a small block in it's place UNLESS you get the value of the motor in the sale.
Seriously, the small block will drop right in the same place... cheaply..
I actually think it'll be pretty wild to see that between the fenders.



Tony

 

I'm still going through the boxes of parts trying to figure out what I need to buy to put this thing back together. Today I found new pushrods and lifters, a second set of timing gears and chain, 12v coil, points, condenser, cap, ect....

What I haven't found yet are the carbs, and rod bearings.

 

nice job on the desoto man .
im new here, i got a 1950 desoto 2 doors that i will be doing some work to .
what happend to the fender skirts?
here is a picture of the one i got

 

Good meeting you too, Big Eh.

 

The fender skirts are still sitting on a shelf in the corner. Since I painted the car I have't done anything to it but feed it, and change it.

 

Looking good!

 

Hbilly4008. im in need of some of the old stuff you wont be needing anymore. bits and pieces nothing big...are you willing to sell some little parts???

 

I'm pretty sure everything that is coming out is going to Big_John. What parts do you need? I've got a full set of door hinges, and I saved the badges...

 

Im looking for the safety switch and the bracket that it mounts to. (its the one that holds the crab cleaner to the block. also the secundary rod for the transmission that you had bent by your father so you can go into reverse. thats about it! can you sell them to me??

 

If your "safety switch" is missing or damaged you can replace it with a 30amp circuit breaker and a 12 ohm resistor. The circuit breaker goes between the - or battery side of the coil and the kickdown switch (on the carburetor) and the anti stall switch (on the transmission). The resistor goes between the + side of the coil and the interrupter switch on the transmission. That's all it is, a circuit breaker and a resistor in a little box. If you have a wiring diagram you will see where they go.

 

I planned to install my heads Friday, so I took my air gun and got out as much of the ol' rat nests as I could. Rcranger told me that I should "tap" on the valves with a hammer to make sure everything was as it should be. Well I guess after sitting on a shelf for 20+ years the mouse piss took its toll on the heads, I stood one of the heads up and tapped on one of the exhaust valves.... next thing I know there is half a valve laying on the bench. SHIT! 3 out of 4 exhaust valves on one head were seized. I wasn't going to mess with them, my next door neighbor owns an engine machine shop. So Friday afternoon I dropped them off to him.

Fast forward to noon hour today, my neighbor calls me up and ask "just how much do you wanna spend on these pieces of shit?" Thats never a good thing to hear. He went on to tell me that he had to drive all three of the stuck valves out with a punch. All three snapped while he did it, AND one of the bosses broke off the head. He estimated $600+ to fix everything. I figured it was time to just start looking for better heads...

I allready knew he didn't have any 409 stock, I also knew he had a decent supply of 348 parts laying around. So I asked him if he had any 348 heads that we could make work. He went to his book to see what parts interchange..."damn, looks like the 348 heads would mate right up to that engine" Then I said "yeah, but would the 348 heads make this thing even more of a slug? Better yet, do you even have any decent usable heads in stock?" He goes on to tell me that he has a pair of heads in the basement allready to go, been sitting on the shelf for a year since the rebuild. He had to check the numbers and call me back.

He called me back not 15minutes later..."your not gonna believe this. These are the same heads! Someone must have marked them wrong. I'll go tear them all down and make sure everything is still good."

So now I have a brand spankin' new pair of stock 333 heads sitting on my motor. Tomorrow I have to figure out what pushrods go where, because the intake and exhaust are different lengths. Then comes intake, and paint. I'm really considering painting this engine Alabaster White, perhaps a metallic or pearl....

 

Progress...

Check out the NOS AC sparkplugs 44XL made in USA baby!


She's patiently waiting...


This still needs a bit of cleaning. I picked up front and rear seals + a filter for $11. Not to shabby

 

Great pic!

 

Looking great!

In my opinion all it needs it some skirts and full caps (the stock ones are beautiful).

That 409 will be great in there, when I swapped my straight 8 flathead for a V8 it was like night and day.

I've really enjoyed this build.

PS I hope you leave the visor off....

 

Thanks man.

The visor is long gone. Skirts will go on this winter, and I still have the stock caps but they are in sad shape.

 

thanks Rusty! I appreciated this info!!

 

engine/tranny came out today. After seeing the size of this combo I have no doubts that the 409 and powerglide will fit in there. Now comes the fun part... scraping all the crud off the frame and making it all pretty again

 

Motor looks good, you could tell everyone it's a Polysphere and how many would know the diff? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

Yeah, thats just one more thing to try and explain to the general public. I could tell them that right after I get done explaining who made Desotos...

 

Heres a little update on my personal hell this engine swap has become. The Air-cooled powerglide had to go. Originally i was going to run it until I blew it up. I bought an American Shifter dual action shifter for it, it arrived on Tuesday and when I went to install it nothing was even close to bolting up. I called the company and got a BS line on how the air-cooled powerglides were "too old" to work with their shifters. The tranny came out of a '71 Vega for crying out loud.

That was Tuesday, Wednesday I spent alot of time in the local yards and on the phone looking for another usable powerglide. (Why another 2spd you ask? Because I had allready dropped $250+shipping on the shifter, and it would be cheaper to buy another tranny than another shifter) I finally called a yard 45minutes away that I thought had gone out of business, luckily those were just rumors. The owner said "I got atleast 3 of those, Let me check what I have" About 15minutes later he called back telling me that they were all air-cooled units. F$CK!!! Then he says "I got a '64 Impala thats got one in it, I'd want a bit more money for that one. Its still a rebuildable car. $200 for the tranny" I asked a little more about the car, turns out it has a "sweet little 283" in it that "purrs like a kitten" $600 for the whole car. I really didn't want the car, but I offered him $500 for everything. Long story short, I now have the carcass of a '64 Impala 4door hardtop sitting in my yard. But hey, atleast I got my tranny..

Pulled the motor/tranny today. Went to install the shifter on the tranny.......F#%$ it doesn't work on this one either!!! I'm at the point now that I'm just going to modify the damn thing.

What really got to me was a little while ago I sold the air-cooled PG to the guy I got the 409 from. There in his garage sat a spotless TH350 with no home, and he said "I bought a shifter for that at a swap meet years ago" He showed me the shifter, Its a freakin Gennie shifter new in the box!

 

I just took the my first drive with the new motor. Very pleased, I didn't really horse on it yet. I want to give it a little time to break in. Still need to adjust the lifters a tad. Those Porters sound GREAT! As soon as I learn how to post videos I'll throw one up.

 

Cool! Any pics of the installation?

 

I gotta say, Howard Cunningham would be rolling over in his grave to see a Chevy engine...

 

Briggs Cunningham would probably be saying..Why??